Ledaig 1997 (XOP) (43.8%)

XOP

700ml / 43.8%

Single Malt

$722

This Ledaig, a 25 year old, from 1997 chosen by Douglas Laing, at 43.8%. A peated island malt, with a sooty smoke, sea salt and honey and a soft vanilla. Smoke and sea salt throughout. From Tobermory, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull. A Hebridean peated malt. Coastal smoke over ripe fruit. Smoky, sweet and full.

In stock

Available

SKU TBM065 Categories Islands, Scottish Whisky, Tobermory, Whiskey Brand: Ledaig

Description

This is a Ledaig, picked by Douglas Laing, a 25 year old release from 1997, drawn from cask DL 17250 and bottled at 43.8%. A release of 200 bottles. Ledaig is the peated malt made at Tobermory on Mull, a distillery founded as Ledaig in 1798. It is one of Scotland's oldest distilleries, and the only one on its island.

It was drawn off stills with their S shaped lyne arms, from peated malt, for a heavily peated island spirit. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanilla under the maritime smoke. Past twenty years the peat is a soft whisper over a deep, fruity malt. Long maturation turns fierce young smoke into a rounded, coastal peat. The town of Tobermory was laid out by the British Fisheries Society a decade before the distillery came. The distillery's history is broken by long silences; its buildings once stored a local cheddar. Burn Stewart revived production in 1993, and Distell bought the distillery in 2013.

Undiluted at 43.8%, it is powerful. A sooty smoke with tar and brine, and the bourbon cask adds vanilla and a gentle honey. The texture is oily, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Soot and brine see out a long finish. This is Ledaig's smoky, maritime single malt.